The ongoing Euros have the attention of almost everyone in the F1 paddock including Ferrari prodigy, Oliver Bearman. When asked which nation was going to win the Championship, Bearman decided to stand by his own team’s side, rather than England, where he is from.
Bearman is a Ferrari academy driver and has already represented the Maranello-based outfit in the Saudi Arabian GP, which Carlos Sainz couldn’t take part in. Filling in for Sainz, who had to get an emergency appendectomy, Bearman finished P7 in Jeddah, impressing everyone at Ferrari.
Now, his comments would have further impressed his employers, as he claimed Italy would win the 2024 Euros.
THE DEFENDING EURO CHAMPIONS ITALY HAVE BEEN KNOCKED OUT BY SWITZERLAND. #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/R9hnoELaat
— 90min (@90min_Football) June 29, 2024
Unfortunately, his prediction was wrong. Italy got eliminated from the Round of 16, after a 2-0 loss to Switzerland. The Swiss team will next play England, Bearman’s home country, on Saturday, 6th July in what promises to be a tight encounter.
England too, were seconds away from being eliminated from the Euros in their Round of 16 clash. Slovakia took an early lead and held on for 93 minutes before Jude Bellingham scored an incredible overhead goal to equalize and take it to extra time. Then, it was England’s all-time record goal scorer Harry Kane who hit the winner.
Bearman’s prediction, however, continues a trend within F1 drivers as he isn’t the first to give out a wrong prediction. Ask Max Verstappen, who did the same not once, but twice.
Max Verstappen’s wrong Dutch prediction
Ahead of the Netherlands’ game against France, Verstappen predicted that the Dutch would win 2-1. However, it ended up being a lackluster 0-0 draw but Verstappen didn’t learn from his mistakes. He put up a bet with Helmut Marko in the Netherlands vs Austria game, confident that his home country would emerge on top.
Again, Verstappen lost, as Austria won the game 3-2. This time he had to be on the receiving end of a dig from Marko too, who asked the Dutch driver to focus on F1 instead of soccer.
Still, it is unlikely that Verstappen will give up his support of the Netherlands so easily, and will be in full force to cheer them on as they take Romania on Tuesday.
